1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates, in general, to personal identification systems and, more specifically, to a method and apparatus for verifying the authenticity of handwritten signatures.
2. Description of the Prior Art
In our present society, merchants in the conduct of their business have a problem of positvely identifying customers, particularly in financial transactions such as those involving checks. One of the oldest forms of identification is the handwritten signature of the individual. The most common method of signature verification is by a visual comparison of a newly-signed signature with a previously recorded signature and an educated guess by the merchant or bank teller whether the two signatures were or were not made by the same person.
The principle difficulty with this signature verification method is the lack of expertise in the merchant or teller to accurately and consistently distinguish an authentic signature from a foregery. Coupled with this problem is the fact that often times the individual is writing under less than ideal conditions compared to the conditions present when the standard signature was made. These problems result in a high rejection rate of valid signatures, thereby causing embarrassment to the holder of the valid signature, or fewer detections of forgeries when examining standards are lowered in order to avoid rejecting a large number of valid signatures.
Many of the present systems for signature verification have recognized that an individual's signature has associated therewith a number of distinct characteristics which can be detected by one means or another and converted into electrical signals which can be automatically processed and compared with a stored representation of an authentic signature for determination as to whether or not the signature currently being investigated is authentic or is a forgery. One such characteristic which has been the focus of considerable attention is the unique pressure which is applied when an individual signs his signature. Although such a technique makes it more difficult for a forger to reproduce an individual's signature, such a technique is in applicable in those commercial environments where the signature is usually applied to a document off-line or not in the presence of the merchant or bank teller.
Thus, it would be desirable to provide a signature verification method and apparatus which provides for verification of a signature without human intervention or visual inspection by another. It would also be desirable to provide a signature verification method and apparatus in which a document may be signed off-line rather than in the presence of another. Finally, it would be desirable to provide a signature vertification method and apparatus in which the representation of the reference signature characteristics is carried on the face of a document to be signed.